The National Enquirer recently published a front page headline and accompanying article about the death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. The cover headline and article were premised on an interview with a source who we have now concluded misled us as to his identity. This resulted in us making statements on the cover and in the article that we now believe to be untrue and that we deeply regret. We therefore extend our sincere regret and apologies to Mr. Hoffman’s family and to David Bar Katz and his family. The National Enquirer takes pride in providing our loyal readers with timely and accurate news. In this instance, we wish simply to say that we were wrong.

Aveteran Enquirerreporter spoke at length with someone who identified himself as David Katz, and he had reason to believe he was indeed speaking with Mr. Katz. The cover headline and much of the article were based on that interview. The Enquirer article was later published by Radar Online and other media outlets. We now know that David Bar Katz denies speaking with our reporter, and we believe we were tricked.

The National Enquirer has a long and deserved reputation for pursuing stories aggressively and fearlessly, but in this instance, I acknowledge we made a mistake. We weredupedinto believing the source of this information. Again,wewish to expressourdeepest and most heartfelt apologies to the family of Mr. Hoffman and to Mr. Katz and his family,as well as Enquirer readers. We are truly sorry.